Manufacturing Recruitment Advice - Dedicated Recruiter to help hire the right candidate

13 July 2018

Speaker 1: You're listening to Manufacturing Ignition Recruitment Advice. Bringing you right up to date on the latest recruitment information, trends, and discussions to help you recruit the best people for your business. Sponsored by Bonfire Recruitment. Helping manufacturing leaders across the UK to attract the best talent for their manufacturing company. Ignite your business or career today by visiting www.bonfirerecruitment.com. Here's your hosts, Terry Mallin and Scott Buchanan.

Terry Mallin: If you're tuning in for the first time, also, we always do recruitment a [inaudible 00:00:41] and this is a discussion around recruitment within your manufacturing organization and the angles faced by both people interested in roles within your company, you recruiting the best people for your business as possible.

Terry Mallin: So the previous three podcasts we went through four potential problems as a manufacturing leader that you would face within recruiting the best staff at your company, and the last podcast, number three, we started on the first two of the four solutions to those actual problems. So today what we're going to do is we're going to discuss the final two solution to the problems. So, taking off, Scott, I know that one of the problems we mentioned was traditional recruitment processes being outdated, and that can be internally how everything's handled, and a solution would possibly be a dedicated recruitment partner. And when I was thinking about this actually over the past week, there's a lot of benefits to having a recruitment partner. Now, that doesn't neccessarily have to be a recruiter, right? That could be someone internal. It could be anyone, right?

Terry Mallin: But actually having someone with a prove track record that knows the industry inside out and that can demonstrate that. So if you asked them to demonstrate previous work, and they should be able to do that, no problem at all. Someone that's actually really interested in the manufacturing industry, is [inaudible 00:02:10] to that industry, they want to get to know your business, and more importantly they want to get to know the team. They want to get a feel for the culture of your business and understand the processes and ... It's all good discussing this, the [inaudible 00:02:24] growth and all that sort of stuff, but you know, really who understands the challenges of a specific company, and can put in the right skillsets that are going to handle those challenges and actually turn those challenges into positive impact overall, in the culture. And someone that will [inaudible 00:02:44] existing team.

Terry Mallin: And just to be crystal clear with this, the importance of this ... That's just someone that's going to have a direct impact on your success as a business leader and more importantly as well, the business success ... Someone that can put the right people in there, someone who knows the full market, who's got the full market coverage, an expert in manufacturing is able to attract the best people for your business. If you get the right people straight away it can only benefit everything you're looking to achieve as business leader.

Terry Mallin: Scott, what's your thoughts.

Scott Buchanan: Yeah, I think it's ... And I'm not going to cover old ground and some of the topics we've touched on in podcasts one, two, and three, but I think at the attitude of given individuals [inaudible 00:03:34] and actually having part of, and I think sometimes the biggest factor, maybe, is everyone ... Sometimes it falls onto an HR manager or maybe a business owner, or it depends on how the structure of the organization, but someone, somewhere has a responsibility [inaudible 00:03:51] probably, because most businesses have an [inaudible 00:03:54], which is fine and that's a [inaudible 00:03:57] positive [inaudible 00:03:57] right environment, at the right levels of course, actually having someone that is [inaudible 00:04:04] understands the business, and whether it's worked with them for a period of time or consistently learns about the business over a period of time is certainly ... can only make things quicker, more efficient, and actually allow the manufacturing business to last longer term as well.

Terry Mallin: Exactly, exactly Scott. You made a good point, because we deal with a lot of HR managers and business partners, and to be fair a lot of the guys are ... Their main focus is on people within the site, and recruitment as a part of that, but a lot of the guys are spread thinly as well, which isn't fair on HR by any means unless, depending on the volume of recruitment [inaudible 00:04:51] and internal recruiter, by any means. I find that it better to use someone that you can trust. The fact that this person is doing [inaudible 00:04:59] relationships. They know what's good in the market and what is not, and yeah, there's a cost involved in that of course. It's a business at the end of the day, but hopefully you do the other way, from the investment of that [crosstalk 00:05:13].

Scott Buchanan: [crosstalk 00:05:13] when I see, and to be fair, I get it, actually, as well, that recruiters you see on many a LinkedIn profile or many a recruiter that you meat over the course, you see are a specialist recruiter, and that's fine if you're recruiting ... If you need an engineer, then an engineering specialist recruiter, but actually the most important person that you should have in your business is actually someone is that specializes in your business, you know, that way, rather than ... And understands, because the ethos of that business whatever is happens to be, and it's important to work along those lines.

Scott Buchanan: And I guess, knowing the HR community, as I do, and the manufacturing industry, I tend to think that people like doing a good job and are quite proud of what they're doing. But actually the [inaudible 00:06:01] in the recruitment piece, I think that you could have an extension of themselves that ... Whether it's employed by the business or though another means, is not a bad [crosstalk 00:06:15] because it's [crosstalk 00:06:15].

Terry Mallin: Yeah, yeah. And I find this, a lot of people, they use a [inaudible 00:06:21] et cetera, but really if you're a manufacturing business you don't ... You can quickly sense-check who you're dealing and ask for some evidence, previous work, et cetera. If that person is good at what they do, they should quickly be able to do that and also provide you some references and why don't you phone X, Y, and Z, because of their other jobs in the past. That's someone that's creditable and knows the industry.

Terry Mallin: And then obviously, moving on, the second solution, Scott ... And that kind of dovetails with what we're saying about the recruitment partner as well, finding the right candidate first time, I think [inaudible 00:07:06] again, recruitment processes are really evolving. We're talking about manufacturing evolving, and the industry 4.0, but there's a big opportunity within recruitment as well, and I think a lot of the time, when we're been working in previous years, what would it would take [inaudible 00:07:25] hire manager [inaudible 00:07:27] levels. Most will meet people and then go off the tech experience [inaudible 00:07:32] and then go on gut feeling. If they feel if a person is right for the role, and they might do some background checks, to ensure that they've got a good egg. But I think, in order to enhance that gut feel and actually make it more it more concrete, you've got to take that [inaudible 00:07:48] farther.

Terry Mallin: And I know through our own process, Scott, and this is with people [inaudible 00:07:52] elsewhere as well, internal recruitment or whatever that may, we're very, very far about what we do, and then we're sending a short [inaudible 00:08:01] for, say, a managing director for a food company or, or an automotive company, or a precision engineering company, or whatever that may be, what we sure is A, that that short list includes the candidate CV, they have a ten minute video interview, where that person is inputting extra information, so I've got more meat about the bones about that person, and the whole purpose of that is actually you quickly get a feel for that person and it saves a lot of time as well, all around. And you've got a feel for that person, if A, they can do the job, and B, what their personality is like and et cetera.

Terry Mallin: Now, to take it with a gut feeling a sort of behaviour and personality as well, we've got to do a behaviour test. Behaviour is different from personality. Behaviours can change. Personalities can't. Now, the reason for the behaviour test isn't to use to either hire someone or not. It's very far from that. What we do within Bonfire is we will work with a specific business. We will then put all of the senior leadership team, and we'll give them the option of doing the behaviour test, which most will do anyway. That gives us an overall profile of how the team is structured, and what the behaviours are like in the team.

Terry Mallin: What we can then do is any candidates that are getting put forward, the candidate will do the behaviour test, and then we can take that profile and put it into the existing senior leadership team, or any management team. It doesn't have to be leadership. It can be anything. You can benchmark it against it the higher manager alone, and see how the relationship is, but what it shows you is how the dynamics of that team may be altered, where the strengths are, and whether it is [inaudible 00:09:39]. Very, very useful tool. And the reason why do such a detailed ... This doesn't ... So background checks and gut feeling is important, as well as the experience of the person, but if you can give that little more information up front, and it allows you to probe even deeper [inaudible 00:09:58], then hopefully that should make sure that [inaudible 00:10:00] you've got enough backing that you're making the right hire at the time. You know, because there's a lot of ... going back to that final problem, there's a lot of money wasted in hiring an unproductive candidate, and we try and minimize that as much as possible by ... How is that Scott?

Scott Buchanan: Yeah, I think it's absolutely fair and crucial. I think, [inaudible 00:10:22], it doesn't matter within the organization and time [inaudible 00:10:25], so our process is designed, yes, to make us more efficient, but actually also to allow clients to have an efficient day and actually still get the best in talent that they're trying to attract that is correct for the business. I think certainly the feedback that I've had from my clients, and to be honest, candidates as well, is that the video interview actually a fairer ... It almost allows people to jump onto like a second interview stage, do you know, that way ...

Terry Mallin: Yes.

Scott Buchanan: Because most interviews, I guess there's an element of feeling for each other and sussing out if one could work with each other, in addition, of course to make sure it's the right candidate for the role, so the actual ... It can work in two ways. It can actually allow the conversation to start very specifically about whatever the role and actually get into the nitty gritty without having to do the softer stuff in first, which can [inaudible 00:11:24] become a buffer to fail, actually within the right candidate. So it's time effective. It's arguably cost effective as well, from a ... At the end of the day, nobody need to travel anywhere to get to ... to meet [inaudible 00:11:36] for a wasted meeting, arguably. [crosstalk 00:11:37] candidate, and if you do that, typical day, what, you're talking to four candidates, and meeting all day, and actually, maybe one of those candidates was the right one, but you still want to see another two. [inaudible 00:11:51] there's a lot of cost involved too.

Terry Mallin: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Scott Buchanan: [crosstalk 00:11:53] they're cost and time efficient.

Terry Mallin: Okay, I think just throwing that ... Just a [inaudible 00:12:00], Scott, just throwing that back on its head, I think, and you don't know this yet, something that ... we have been assessing something today online, then which kind of got me thinking. It's not always about actually the candidates [inaudible 00:12:13] I think what we're going to start implementing as a business is actually getting higher managers to do a video and allow them to discuss what they are looking for from an individual, about being a better business, about being a better company, because, see, then they ...

Terry Mallin: In this type of market, we are working with people that don't necessarily want, and I'm not actively looking by any means, but they want to know about key opportunities that are going to develop their career, and with that they want to make sure that actually ... If they've got that information in front of them, there's going to be more people interested in that particular business, because they'll be able to see what the company does, what the business does, what the team does, what the higher managers like, and they'll be more receptive to actually go in for an interview. So I think as a business, Scott ... This it the first [inaudible 00:13:01], I think that's what we're going to implement in going forward, I think it's very important.

Scott Buchanan: [crosstalk 00:13:06] It's definitely another tool, there, Terri. To be honest we've done versions of that haven't we? I guess that's taking it to the next logical stage, where some of the questions that we will ask on the video interview is actually from the client, that way it's actually part of ...

Terry Mallin: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Scott Buchanan: [crosstalk 00:13:22] I guess there's some individual that aren't quite comfortable in front of the camera, but others may not, so we can still run both processes. That wouldn't be an issue.

Terry Mallin: Good.

Scott Buchanan: As making sure that the right person gets the job for the long.

Terry Mallin: And it's the best possible person for the company to drive whatever plan or strategy may be going forward.

Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Manufacturing Ignition Podcast. If you've made it this far, we take it that you've enjoyed the show. In return, we'd love it if you would leave us a rating and review on iTunes, subscribe while you're there, and we'll catch you for the next episode.

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